Thresholds to Components

If you’re not experiencing the exact same thing in wine as your fellow tasters when it comes to certain components, there’s a good reason for it. Our sensitivity to components such as sweet, sour and bitter differs drastically from person to person. For instance, you may find a red wine extremely tannic while your buddy doesn’t. Maybe you have a higher tolerance to the sour component or acid in wine than your neighbour. It’s all about thresholds. After a while of tasting wine with others and comparing notes, you start to recognize how your palate differs from others according to your individual sensitivity to these components. Once realized, you can compensate for them to a certain degree. 

Agents or Importers

Agents or importers are very important entities and play a key role in alcohol sales, especially in a monopoly system like the LCBO (Ontario) or SAQ (Quebec). Hired by a producer, they negotiate with the monopoly to convince them to list their product and often have input into what the labeling will look like and how it is merchandized. Once listed, they help market and sell the product by calling on restaurants, bars, and hotels to get them to put the product on their wine list. They hold press tastings and public events to help promote the product. Quite simply, they are the liaison between the producer and the buyer. Occasionally, the monopoly deals directly with a producer, but more often than not, an agent is the go-between.